SEO Tycoon

**kasparovda** · 09:10 PM

The problem is this, I'm getting almost zero traffic for my website www.thechessworld.com . I get about 50 visits a day according to Google Analytics:

39.96% Direct Traffic

22.21% Referring Sites

37.83% Search Engine

Why do I get such a low percentage from search engines??? How to get more traffic from the search engines?

**chrishirst** · 09-29-2008, 04:10 AM

Actually that is a very good percentage to have. It means you are NOT relying on the vagaries of search engines to send traffic.

**jabo** · 09-29-2008, 07:29 AM

how old is your site anyways? how do you promote and optimize it?

**RideaLightning** · 09-29-2008, 12:11 PM

That's simple

Stop placing backlinks on different sites. Don't create even an opportunity to find you except SE.
Surf to your site from SE only. Let GA think you come to the site from SE also.

The only problem that following my advice you may have 10 times less visitors...

**kasparovda** · 09-29-2008, 03:10 PM

My domain name is 2 years old. But I owe the domain for about 9 month (it made it from PR0 to PR4 thanks to this forum and some other sources).
I promote is by doing social bookmarking (Diggs, del...), tried to do press releases but did not get much traffic out of it, visit chess related forums often (signature), email signatures, comments on chess blogs, trying to add more content with keywords (articles, pictures, wallpaper, etc.) . I don't know what else should I do. Any more constructive suggestions???

Quote:

Originally Posted by jabo

how old is your site anyways? how do you promote and optimize it?

**kasparovda** · 09-29-2008, 03:12 PM

Yes, I'm not relying on search engines and I'm still without traffic.

I thought search engines suppose to supply about 80% of traffic?

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrishirst

Actually that is a very good percentage to have. It means you are NOT relying on the vagaries of search engines to send traffic.

**juliensimon** · 09-29-2008, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kasparovda

Yes, I'm not relying on search engines and I'm still without traffic.

I thought search engines suppose to supply about 80% of traffic?

You missed the point. Let's say you get 80% of your traffic through SEs and your income depends on your traffic (e-commerce site).
One day, for x reason, google stop indexing your website. Can you afford to loose 80% of your income?

It's good to increase your traffic and SEs are definitely a good way but don't focus only on them.

**Learning Newbie** · 09-29-2008, 08:21 PM

Julien and Chris couldn't be more correct.

The only way you want to increase your traffic from search engines, is to increase your traffic from all sources. Roughly in proportion. Which has the effect of sending more people from Google - but also from many other sources, so you don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Fortunately, if you're smart about it, the "backlinkz" people tell you to get, will be the kind that real humans click on, sending you direct referrals from a number of sources. That will have the side effect of increasing your love from Google and Yahoo, but, again, if they decide to stop listing (or drop you 10 pages) your site, you'll have many others sending people your way.

**kasparovda** · 09-29-2008, 09:38 PM

Okay, what I meant in my question is how can I increase traffic? I know referrals are good and so on. But most website I know of get most of their traffic from search engines and not from direct clicks (bookmarks). it is not the case for thechessworld. I know that backlinks are important, I'm constantly exchanging. Increase traffic from all sources sounds like a great plan to me . The only question is HOW?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Learning Newbie

Julien and Chris couldn't be more correct.

The only way you want to increase your traffic from search engines, is to increase your traffic from all sources. Roughly in proportion. Which has the effect of sending more people from Google - but also from many other sources, so you don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Fortunately, if you're smart about it, the "backlinkz" people tell you to get, will be the kind that real humans click on, sending you direct referrals from a number of sources. That will have the side effect of increasing your love from Google and Yahoo, but, again, if they decide to stop listing (or drop you 10 pages) your site, you'll have many others sending people your way.

**juliensimon** · 09-30-2008, 12:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kasparovda

Okay, what I meant in my question is how can I increase traffic? I know referrals are good and so on. But most website I know of get most of their traffic from search engines and not from direct clicks (bookmarks). it is not the case for thechessworld.

That's where you are wrong. Referring sites doesn't mean social bookmarkers.
If it works for millions of websites, it must work for millions +1.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kasparovda

I know that backlinks are important, I'm constantly exchanging. Increase traffic from all sources sounds like a great plan to me . The only question is HOW?

Exchanging links is efficient only if it's done properly

Use your brain and think: if you were a chess player and wanted to play chess online, learn about chess, get info about chess tournaments etc... what kind of websites would you go to? Start making a list (sites where they sell chess boards, other chess sites but also game sites because if you play chess, you are most likely also a card player etc...) Try to get your link on those site.
Try to reverse the role and think as someone looking for your site. From your website, you seem to know a lot about chess. You can't know anything about chess player.

I see you write on a blog. Write a little teaser about your articles and post it on article directories and games sites. "My king was on A4. He got me stuck with his tower on C5 and his queen on D6. Find out how I got out of this trap?"
That's a crappy example but you get the picture.

Write what interests people. Link your content to your site from relevant sites. Traffic will flow.

**northbeach23** · 09-30-2008, 06:56 AM

what your keywords that ranked in google?

**ai3gtmc** · 09-30-2008, 09:15 AM

SE hmm I get very little traffic from them too, but if you get direct,backlinks,etc traffic then you're good, you can't just rely on se traffic.

**bizcoaching** · 10-01-2008, 11:32 AM

If you want to get more traffic, optimize more your site through your good-targeted keywords and build more and more backlinks. How old is your site by the way?

**twex** · 10-02-2008, 08:35 AM

Mate search engine depends on your backlinks, niche competition and many other factors. If your site is new one and you are getting that much traffic from search engine than its quite good.

# Put Original Contain
# Do some keyword optimization
# Got the relevant and quality backlink

**master08** · 10-07-2008, 01:14 AM

Well, if you want to get more traffic from search engines, your site just got to make it to the top few pages of the respectable search engines out there such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. Try optimizing your contents to contain keywords that do not have many URl entry in the searches as you will stand a better chance in making your site featured in the top spots!

**jetpilot123** · 10-07-2008, 06:58 AM

looks like you are doing ok already with your stats.

**wayfarer07** · 10-08-2008, 11:49 AM

Wow. You want to compete with chess sites?? I'm an avid chess-player, and you have some heavy work ahead of you.

Think about it:
Chessbase, including playchess.com
chessclub.com (homepage of the ICC)
FIDE
uschess.org
chess ninja

Those are all high-powered, news-broadcasting blogs or corporate sites, and that list only scratches the surfaces. Chess is extremely popular on the internet. To make a difference you need to attract an audience by having a famous contributor to your articles. I suggest you try to recruit young, famous Grandmasters, such as Hikaru Nakamura to write on your site.

**kasparovda** · 10-08-2008, 07:58 PM

Wow, sounds like a good idea. I should probably hire Kasparov, Ivanchuk, Kamsky and couple of other guys from top 25 too. I could also go for Anand/Kramnik pair but they are a little busy with the World Championship right now...

Seriously, if I have a chess website it does not mean I have to compete with FIDE, I just asked how to get traffic from search engines. I don't have enough budget to hire Grandmasters. It was a joke right

??

Quote:

Originally Posted by wayfarer07

Wow. You want to compete with chess sites?? I'm an avid chess-player, and you have some heavy work ahead of you.

Think about it:
Chessbase, including playchess.com
chessclub.com (homepage of the ICC)
FIDE
uschess.org
chess ninja

Those are all high-powered, news-broadcasting blogs or corporate sites, and that list only scratches the surfaces. Chess is extremely popular on the internet. To make a difference you need to attract an audience by having a famous contributor to your articles. I suggest you try to recruit young, famous Grandmasters, such as Hikaru Nakamura to write on your site.

**kasparovda** · 10-08-2008, 08:01 PM

Will try/Doing it right now. Please suggest me a free good keyword stat checker!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by master08

Well, if you want to get more traffic from search engines, your site just got to make it to the top few pages of the respectable search engines out there such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. Try optimizing your contents to contain keywords that do not have many URl entry in the searches as you will stand a better chance in making your site featured in the top spots!

**wayfarer07** · 09:01 PM

You'll never get a top player, but you shouldn't have to pay anyone. You'd be surprised at who may write on your site for free. I've spoken to Hikaru several times over the internet: he loves the opportunity to talk about chess, and he keeps a blog. I promise you he isn't alone. Think of the retired and semi-retired players you could interview/network with. What about Seirawan, or Max Dlugy, or Larry Christiansen? They are all popular and well-known, but have a lot more time on their hands these days. Look up a list of peoples' seconds and find out who hasn't been to a tournament in a long time.

Contact your chess association, if you act like a press agent they will put you in touch with people. Plus, a huge percentage of the top players still are semi-active online, either on playchess or the icc. The inactive ones usually love to talk to their fans. At the very least you should be interviewing people. No one is going to be interested in your site if you don't do anything special, but if you have original content, people will be checking back and telling others about you. Other people with similar sites will network with you, then your reputation and content will grow and improve.

It will take a heck of a lot of work, chess has a large presence online.